Update about 'Stop Long Island Farm Bureau/USDA Stealth Plan To Brutally Slaughter 5,000 East End Deer' on Change.org‏

“Deer” Friends,The cull has begun. While we succeeded in convincing nearly every town and village on Eastern Long Island to forego participating in any deer cull this year, some, like North Haven and Southold Town, have refused to budge from their insistence on recruiting federal sharpshooters, using high-powered rifles to gun down our deer at night, or cruelly trapping and shooting them in the head. To make matters worse, the deer will be intentionally baited to their deaths! There has been no comprehensive review of the environmental impacts of the culling! No consideration of alternative strategies, including non-lethal methods, to address deer-human conflicts, and we, local taxpayers, concerned citizens, as well as tourists and visitors, who contribute greatly to the local economy, have not been able to meaningfully participate in the decision-making process.The deer need your help to stop the slaughter! Elected officials are ready to sacrifice not only the deer, who are enjoyed and loved by so many, but also our own safety and the safety of our children and pets and that, is unacceptable to citizens and taxpayers concerned about the risks to the public, who also care about the deer, and have little interest in or tolerance for state-sanctioned federal sharpshooters invading our lands and killing our deer.

To help the deer, we need you to do three things.

(1) Help us fund the on-going legal action that has enabled us to stop these Towns, by making a generous tax-deductible contribution to the legal fund for deer at: http://www.humanelongisland.org/donate-for-deer. Please DONATE* to help fund our Young/Sommer lawsuit against the USDA, the DEC, and the Towns of Southold and North Haven. For these donations, made specifically to fund the fight for deer, be sure to indicate in the notebox when you make your donation: FOR THE DEER.

(2) The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is the ringleader of this effort. Though the Long Island Farm Bureau has the money and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) supplies the deer assassins, the DEC controls the permits that will allow this slaughter to occur. If the DEC is pressured not to issue permits for the cull, it can’t go forward!Contact the DEC Commissioner, Joe Martens by telephone (518-402-8545), by fax (518-402-8541), or by email (fill out email form at http://www.dec.ny.gov/about/407.html) and ask him to cease issuance of any nuisance deer control permits for Eastern Long Island until the DEC and towns/villages fully comply with all relevant state laws, including the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).To make this easy, feel free to copy and paste the following message into an email, or fax it to Commissioner Martens, or to use it as a “talking-points” guide if you call his office:

Commissioner Martens,I am a proud New York resident, tax payer, and I value New York wildlife. I am strongly opposed to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation(DEC) issuing any nuisance deer permits to allow federal sharpshooters or for- hire deer killers to cruelly gun down or capture and kill up to 1,000 deer on Eastern Long Island. Neither the DEC, individual towns or villages, or the US Department of Agriculture have complied with state or federal laws and yet the slaughter has begun. The agencies and municipalities completely failed to consider alternatives to this planned killing spree. Furthermore, I have not had any meaningful opportunity to participate in the decision-making process. In addition, the fact that the Long Island Farm Bureau has been given at least $200,000 dollars – my tax dollars -- by the New York legislature to pay for the cost of this slaughter – is appalling. This plan must be terminated and I demand that you act immediately to direct your staff not to issue any nuisance deer permits to kill deer on private or public lands on Eastern Long Island until, at least, compliance with all laws is attained.Sincerely,YOUR NAME

(3) Contact New York Governor Andrew Cuomo by telephone (518-475-8390) or email (fill out the form at http://www.governor.ny.gov/contact/GovernorContactForm.php) and ask him to intervene and order the DEC not to issue any nuisance deer control permits for Eastern Long Island until all state law requirements are met.To make this easy, feel free to copy and paste the following message into an email or use this as a guide, if you call the office of Governor Cuomo:

Governor Cuomo,I am a proud New York resident, tax payer, and I value New York wildlife. I am strongly opposed to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issuing any nuisance deer permits to allow federal sharpshooters or for- hire deer killers to cruelly gun down or capture and kill up to 1,000 deer on Eastern Long Island. Neither the DEC, individual towns or villages, or the US Department of Agriculture have complied with state or federal laws and yet the slaughter could start any day. The agencies and municipalities completely failed to consider alternatives to this planned killing spree nor have I had any meaningful opportunity to participate in the decision-making process. Furthermore, the fact that the Long Island Farm Bureau has been given at least $200,000 dollars – my tax dollars -- by the New York legislature to pay for the cost of this slaughter – is appalling. This plan must be terminated and I demand that you act immediately to direct DEC Commissioner Joe Martens not to issue any nuisance deer permits to kill deer on private or public lands on Eastern Long Island until, at least, compliance with all laws is attained.Sincerely,YOUR NAME

Thank you so much for your support and efforts to protect Long Island’s deer. Please share this alert with your friends, family, co-workers, and acquaintances who live in New York, as well as those who visit and shop in the Hamptons and/or Eastern Long Island, at our farm stands, vineyards, in our charming villages and at our malls, during the spring, summer, fall and holidays, and ask them to get involved.